LM Studio

What it is for

LM Studio is a local-and-cloud agent for open models: the official Bionic still (see the cover: project sidebar, chat, localhost:3000 preview) is the getting-started UI. Use it when the job is run an open model on your machine (or LM Studio’s US cloud), not when you want a ChatGPT seat.

The desktop apps are free to download. Bionic+ is the first public paid card for hosted OSS models.

What makes it unique: the cover is LM Studio’s own Bionic product UI (agent + preview pane), not a robot wordmark.

Key features

• Bionic agent — projects, chats, file edits, and a preview pane (cover).
• Local runtimes — llama.cpp and MLX; download models in-app.
• Offline voice transcription — local, on the Free card.
• LM Link — Free includes up to 5 devices.
• Secure Cloud — US-hosted open models with Zero Data Retention (paid).

Who it's for

Best fit: people who want a local agent and may pay for hosted Kimi/GLM/DeepSeek when the box is too small.

Poor fit: people who only want a CLI runner (Ollama) or a ChatGPT-style hosted seat (ChatGPT).

Pricing

Verified 2026-10-21 (Asia/Shanghai) from lmstudio.ai/pricing. Cloud-model use consumes credits; local and LM Link models do not. Re-check before you buy.

• Free — $0. Bionic Agent; local LLMs; offline voice; LM Link for 5 devices; limited web search.
• Bionic+ — $20 USD / month. US-hosted OSS models (page lists Kimi K3, GLM 5.3, DeepSeek V4 Flash); discounted bulk tokens; web search and page extraction.
• Pro — $100 USD / month. Everything in Bionic+; 5× usage limits; early access.
• Organizations — centralized billing for inference credits. Team subscription seats were “coming soon” on the FAQ we copied.

The July 2025 blog post still says the desktop app is free for use at work (no commercial license form). That is the local app, not the Bionic+ cloud card.

Limitations / costs

• Cloud models need an account and credits. Local does not.
• Bionic is a separate app from classic LM Studio (docs).
• Not OSI-licensed as a product. Do not tag this listing as open-source software.
• Web search has privacy caveats even with ZDR (FAQ).

Alternatives

• Ollama — local CLI/app/API; MIT; no invented Cloud dollar.
• Jan — Apache-2.0 local desktop chat.
• Open WebUI — browser UI in front of Ollama or an API.

Official tutorial

Written path: Create Your First Project plus Pricing. We did not confirm an official LM Studio-channel Getting started YouTube id for embed.

Website

https://lmstudio.ai

Source

Catalog row is curated (2026-10-21). Cover is the official Bionic product still on lmstudio.ai (agent + localhost preview), not a logo. Dollars checked on lmstudio.ai/pricing (Free $0; Bionic+ $20; Pro $100). No official Getting started YouTube confirmed for embed.

Last verified

2026-10-21 (Asia/Shanghai) editorial check.